After The Beep
by orintheus
Summary: Ted and ensemble, when Ted gets stranded somewhere he finds a pay phone-but can't remember any of his friends' current numbers.


_(For fic_promptly. Takes place after the new GNB building was opened. I apologize in advance for any canon errors, it's been a while since I've watched the show so my mind's foggy on the timeline.)_

The party following the opening of the new GNB building ended near the wee hours of the morning. Ted was hungover, he knew it by how sluggish and disoriented he felt and by that time he also knew all of his friends had left separately. Lily and Marshall had Marvin to worry about, Barney and Robin were probably happily engaged. It was a harsh lesson for Ted but he didn't want anything to ruin the building's opening ceremonies.

He slipped his hand into his pocket, reaching around for his wallet, when he couldn't find that he checked his jacket pocket for his cell phone. Empty. He paused, realizing he must've dropped both during the party. The only thing he had managed to fish out of his pockets were two 25 cent coins.

He made his way to the entrance of a library and found dirty looking payphones lining the walls of it. He thought about placing in the coins and calling one of his friends to come and get him when a thought occurred to him, he'd remembered why both of those coins were in his pocket and not in his wallet: one was a mint coin all the way from 1953, the other was from 1988. All of his friends had laughed when he'd told them about the pristine condition he'd found them in but he was still proud of the find.

But the thought of getting home at this hour far outweighed the value of the two coins put together so he slipped them begrudgingly into the slot. Then he reached for the buttons, only to realize he'd forgotten all of their numbers. Robin had gotten a new phone recently and he remembered her telling him the number.

It went: 333-456-7682.

He dialed the number, it was ringing.

"Hello?" a male voice answered.

"Hello. This is Ted, is Robin there?"

"Man, you got the wrong number."

"Okay, sorry."

"No problem man, remember what Buddha said: there are only two mistakes one can make along the road of truth; not going all the way, and not starting. Keep up the good fight."

He hung up the phone trying in vain to remember who that number was. Where had he seen that number before? Wang guy, he should've figured that by the quote. But how in the world had he remembered a random number his friends had dialed when he wasn't around? Unless he'd dialed the number correctly and Robin had given him the number as a joke.

That would have to wait because he was again without any form of communication or money. He began to scour the ground for coins and found another two perfectly good ones and trying to ignore where the time they'd been printed, he placed them in. Another number came to his head.

He dialed it, hoping it was Marshall's number.

"Hello?"

This time a female voice came on. Before he could even speak she spoke again. "Wait, Ted is that you?"

He hung up the phone, Cindy. He didn't even want to know what he was thinking confusing Cindy's and Marshall's number. He riffled through his pockets again, hoping to find his cell phone. Instead he found his credit card, it was better than nothing, along with a number scribbled on a piece of paper.

He dialed it.

"Barney Stinson's Legendary Massages. Specializing in back, spine and legs. Please leave an appointment at the sound of the tone."

"Barney, it's Ted. I know you're busy with Robin but could I get a lift? Also that's really gross, even for you."

He hung up, knowing that Barney would be too busy to answer the phone. Scratching his head, he tried to remember Lily's number. There were a few times when he'd called her workplace but she wouldn't be there. He began searching through the phone book attached to the payphone, looking for his friend's numbers. Barney didn't have his number listed after a few close calls with a hookup gone wrong. But Lily's school had to be in somewhere, he flipped it to the schools section and found a place that sounded right.

He called up the number, hoping someone would be there with Lily's cell phone number. It rang a couple of times before going to an answering machine. Drat. He flipped through the book in case there were other numbers he'd missed but he couldn't find any. And there were too many Marshall Eriksens, Robin Scherbatskys to even attempt to find them.

The only number he could remember clearly was from the apartment him and Marshall had shared because it was the only number they had to remember before cell phones became big. He didn't want to wake up Marvin but he had little choice. He dialed the number to the apartment.

Sure enough, Marshall's sleepy voice picked up.

"Hello?"

"Marshall, it's Ted and I know it's late and you're super pissed about me calling you this late and waking up Marvin and-."

"Ted, relax. What's up?"

"I'm stranded, come pick me up?"

"You got it, man. Where are you?"

"Near the library by the GNB building."


End file.
